Do you believe in love at first sight, or is that idea just for young and naive teenagers? If you are over age 35 and have fantasized about locking eyes with some beautiful stranger across the room, you're not alone. As it turns out, those who are middle aged are 46% more likely to believe in love at first sight than their younger 18-24 year-old counterparts, at least according to a new study by DatingAdvice.com.

Sixty-seven percent of those aged 35 to 44 and 64% of those aged 45 to 54 believe in love at first sight, the highest percentages of people polled in the study. Those 18 to 24? Not so much. Only 46% of them believe you can fall in love at first sight. Even seniors 65 and older are a bit more optimistic at 56%.

Does this mean we don't grow wiser with age? Far from it, according to the study's dating expert Rachel Dack, who said that Americans 35 and up are more likely to believe in love at first sight because they’ve had more time to experience and evaluate it (and more relationships and intimacy in general), and have greater clarity about what love means to them than Americans under 35.

Interestingly, single people seem to be more cynical about the idea than those who are married or divorced. Only 50% of single people polled believe in love at first sight, whereas 60% of divorced people and 61% of married people do.

Another interesting finding: men are more romantic than women, despite the stereotypes of being non-committal. Turns out, they are just waiting for the right one to appear. Sixty-one percent of men believe in love at first sight compared to only 53% of women.

The study surveyed 1,080 respondents over the course of three weeks, balancing responses by age, gender, income, race, sexuality and other factors in order to accurately represent the U.S. population. The study has a margin of error of +/- 2.8%.

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Kelly is a writer, dating blogger, and author of the new book Date Expectations: A Guide to Changing Your Dating Life and Finding Real Love, available on iTunes and Amazon . You can see her musings on The Huffington Post, Examiner, Yahoo! Shine, Digital Romance, and YourTango among others. Find her at www.kellyseal.com, or her Twitter page. You are also welcome to email her at kellyjseal@gmail.com.